Kipnis was rested recently with a sore elbow. Apparently this has been bothering him all spring.

Burke pointed out that Kipnis' percentage of fastballs swung at and hit has dropped from 89% in the first half of 2012 to 66% so far this year. IOW, he's swinging and missing at a lot of fastballs he was hitting last year.

I wonder if the elbow problem has affected his bat velocity.

That looked like a fastball that he whacked over the center fielder's head for a two-run triple last night, though.

He's looked better the last few games. Eye test to me says he got too big working out this off-season. Dudes arms, neck, chest are night and day from when he first came up. My theory is that he took out his anger on his lack of 2H 2012 power on the weight room trying to become Dan Uggla. And that its affected his agility and bat speed. With the elbow not helping.

"It's like dating a woman who hates you so much she will never break up with you, even if you burn down the house every single autumn." ~ Chuck Klosterman on Browns fans relationship with the Browns

I'd be inclined to believe it's just simply pressing. Earlier in the year, he was getting fooled and swinging at a lot of bad pitches that he seemed overanxious on. When he did make hard contact, it was at someone.

When Kip was up with RISP, you knew it was trouble.

Of late, he's not pulling the ball as much and is driving the ball to centerfield. Much more relaxed stoke; probably doesn't hurt that Santana and Reynolds and others are carrying the load offensively, so he doesn't feel (like last year) that if he doesn't do it, no one will.

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No doubt it's good to see Kip showing some power to the opposite field but, can anyone remember the last time he hit a line drive to the pull field for a base hit or otherwise?!

Seriously, I know it might sound strange, but I'm a little worried that he's not showing an ability to pull the ball with authority.

The reality is, he's probably going to see a lot of fastballs on the inner half and, unless he's able to show an ability to turn on those pitches, he's not going to hit anywhere near for the average or power we would've hoped.